Charlotte's Web

"Okay Adrienne. Now, tell us what you know." Lugs sat down in a chair and patiently waited for Adrienne to begin. There was a recorder between them in Billie Joe's 'office' where the police had put their equipment. It was odd seeing tracking equipment next to guitars. Billie Joe sat next to her for encouragement.

"About nine months ago, I went out with some friends. The boys were having sleepovers at their friends' houses and Billie Joe was away touring and I didn't want to be by myself so some girlfriends and I just decided to go out. We went to a new club called 'Twisted' on South Boulevard. We danced and drank a couple of drinks. I was at the bar by myself when a guy came up to me and started talking to me. He was familiar but I just couldn't place him. He offered to by me a drink, a scotch on the rocks with a twist. After that, it gets really hazy. I remember getting up and leaving the bar and I remember seeing him and after that I just don't know. I woke up on the kitchen floor the next morning half dressed." She paused.

"Go on Adrienne." Lugs encouraged gently, this could mean a breakthrough.

"It's okay Adie." Billie Joe whispered to her and squeezed her hand. She looked at him and he nodded in silent support.

"There was a note in my hand. It said that I knew who he was and he would be back."

"Do you still have the note?" Lugs asked with a slight urgency in his voice.

"No." Adrienne said, tears brimming. "I threw it away. I didn't know what happened but I knew what happened if that makes sense. I just wanted it to go away like it never happened." She grabbed a nearby tissue and wiped her nose.

"My friend Julia, Julia Cauthen, called me later that night. We tried to talk at least once a week. She told me that she had just broken up with her boyfriend Danny. Danny and I had dated when we were younger. I was more or less with him when I wasn't with Billie Joe and he never liked Billie Joe. After we got married, I never heard from him until he started to date Julia last April. He and Julia started to have problems around June but waited until August to break up. The night before... the night before she died, she called me and told me she was scared. She said that Danny had lost his mind and was threatening to kill her and Charlotte and that he would kill me and Billie Joe for causing all his pain and then he would kill my kids for shits and giggles. I told her I would get tickets for her and Charlotte to come out here. I had the tickets placed when I found out I was pregnant. Billie Joe came home the next day and that's when everything happened."

"Anything else Adrienne?" Lugs asked as Billie Joe remained silent.

Adrienne thought for a moment. "Yeah. On Christmas Eve, he called me. I didn't recognize his voice as Danny but I knew it was the guy from the bar. He said he was going to get me, to remember the scotch on the rocks with a twist, and that if I said anything, he would kill Joey and Jakob."

Billie Joe tensed up, this was almost too much for him to take. "Why haven't you said anything until now?"

"Because none of it clicked until just now. I was upstairs and it hit me. Danny is the one behind all of this." Adrienne's tears had dried and angst began to rise in her throat.

"Do you have any idea as to where he could be now?" Lugs asked. This was the break he was hoping for.

"No." Adrienne answered. "I don't have any idea. He doesn't know anybody out here, I don't think."

"What's his last name? Adrienne, we can find him if you just tell us his last name."

"Summers, Danny Summers."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Armstrong's phone rang off the hook that night from parents from the school blaming Charlotte for their sons' pornography addictions. Many parents wanted to boycott Charlotte from ever going to the school again, not that Charlotte wanted to go back. The phones rang so continuously that Billie Joe un-plugged them. But he later had to re-plug them by order of Officer Lugs.

Billie Joe and Adrienne later retired to their bedroom where McKenna slept peacefully in her bassinet near the bed. She, thankfully, slept through most of the night, unlike her brothers whom woke up every two hours when they were babies. The television was on softly while Billie Joe laid on the bed dressed in comfortable pajama pants and Adrienne was finishing her nightly bathroom routine.

Billie Joe flipped through the channels but didn't bother to keep it on any of them long enough to see what was really on. He was bored. McKenna made a little noise and Billie Joe craned his neck to peek into the bassinet. She was still asleep and he wrote the sound off as gas.
Adrienne came in, tying her hair up in an elastic, and plopped down on the bed. She was dressed in an old T-shirt and boxers. Not exactly stimulating apparel, but this was the way Billie Joe loved her most. She didn't need the vixen makeup and clothing to look beautiful for him.

As Adrienne rubbed lotion on her arms, Billie Joe watched the motions of her hands and how they pressed the lotion into her skin ever so softly. The past week really opened his eyes and made him realize that all the little things Adrienne did were the reason he fell in love with her.

Like the way she pulled on her dress shyly if you complimented her.

Or when she chewed on her tongue when she was in deep thought.

Or how she picked things up off the floor with her feet.

All of those things he loved. Aroused from watching her apply lotion, Billie Joe leaned over and kissed her neck and worked his way up. There was no makeup in the way between his lips and her skin. He could feel her soft groan in her throat as he kissed her passionately. His hands crept up her legs as he kissed her lips but he quickly broke it.

"You have got to shave those things. You just killed the mood with your hairy legs."

Adrienne gasped, "They are n... " She rubbed her legs. "Okay, maybe they are. But you don't need to touch my legs then. I haven't had time to shave or wax them or anything. Just don't touch my legs if you don't like them."

"But I love your legs." Billie Joe said coyly as he caught her lips and pulled her down on top of him. He held her in place by holding her by the rear and they continued to make-out, but at a much more fevered rate."

His hands crept under her shirt and pulled the cotton off of her body. He rolled on top of her and let his hands and mouth play with her chest. Her hands, however, were headed in the opposite direction on him.

Billie Joe groaned as she touched him. He bit her neck and caused her to give a surprised shriek before she bit her lip to control her voice. He began to tug her shorts down.

"DADDY "

Billie Joe and Adrienne quickly broke apart as they heard the yell and the sound of little feet pounding in the hallway. Adrienne pulled her shirt back on and tugged her shorts back up as Billie Joe put a pillow on his lap just as Jakob shot into their room like a rocket.

"What, what? What's wrong?" Billie Joe asked as Jakob quickly climbed into their bed and hid under the covers between his mom and dad.

"There's a guy standing outside my window " He yelled from his hiding place.

"Jakob, we're on the second floor." Adrienne tried to reason. Jakob was known for waking up from a nightmare and insisting something was in the closet, outside the window, or under the bed. However, they thought he had grown out of that.

"He was on a ladder "

Jerked out of their horny haze, Billie Joe ran out of the room, yelling behind him for Adrienne to stay with Jakob and McKenna, and ran down to Jakob's room. When he reached the door, which was flung open from Jakob's mad dash, Billie Joe stopped and peered his head around the frame. The window was open and a ladder was leaning up against the windowsill.

Billie Joe crept into the room and silently picked up a baseball bat that was on the floor. He jerked the closet door open but saw nothing but toys and clothes. The only other opening was the door to the bathroom that connected Jakob and Joey's rooms.

He quietly opened that door to reveal the bathroom empty. Still not convinced, Billie Joe looked in the towel closet and pulled back the shower curtain to find the spaces empty.

Even quieter than before, Billie Joe walked into Joey's room to find it completely empty. Joey's bed was messy as if he had just got out of it. With his heart in his throat, Billie Joe checked the closet, only to find it empty.

Billie Joe went into the hallway, his grip tight on the baseball bat, and could see the dark figures of Officer Lugs and his assistant over the railing getting into position, their guns drawn. Officer Lugs saw Billie Joe and motioned for him to get into a safe place.

A crash was heard down the hall in Charlotte's room.

Billie Joe, who was closer, began to sprint down the hall while the officers trailed behind. As he raced down the hall, he could hear the crashes growing more frequent and louder, but he couldn't hear any screams from Charlotte. Where was Charlotte?

"Charlotte" Billie Joe yelled, the fear overriding his need for silence.

The crashes stopped but footsteps replaced them. Heavy footsteps. There was some scraping against the wall and then silence.

"He has ladders at all windows." Officer Lugs whispered to Billie Joe. Billie Joe could see the drawn gun of Officer Lugs out of the corner of his eye and it was not comforting to him. "We have backup coming. He's not going to get away." Billie Joe finally turned to look at him. "Billie Joe, go back to your wife. Hide. We will take care of it. Go."

Billie Joe stepped forward to look in Charlotte's room to find it smashed and broken but she was nowhere to be seen. There was no blood or sign of her struggling. "Where is she? Where's Joey?"

"Joey went down the hall a few seconds ago towards your bedroom. I figure he was hiding and that's why you couldn't find him. We don't know where Charlotte or Spike is."

"Don't tell me Spike's here." Billie Joe groaned as Officer Lugs escorted him back towards his room. "I don't need this tonight."

"Wait." The other officer held up his hand, halting them. The three men listened carefully and heard footsteps several feet behind them.

"Guess who Billie Joe."

Before they could turn around, a shot rang out and Billie Joe felt an intense pain as he fell to the ground. He saw the feet of the policemen running towards Danny. Several more shots rang out and dusty pieces of drywall fell around Billie Joe's head and mixed with the muffled screams coming from the bedroom.

Knowing the scuffle was getting intense from the grunts, moans, and breaking of furniture, Billie Joe forced himself to pull to his knees and somehow managed to crawl towards the bedroom door. Why his bedroom seemed like a sanctuary, he didn't know, but he crawled weakly, feeling warm blood ooze out of his back from where the bullet had struck him.

Adrienne came out of the sanctuary door and her hands flew to her mouth in horror at the scene that was being played. She could see Danny overpowering the officers, his gun pointed at Billie Joe, who was crawling on the ground, all ready shot. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

"Billie Joe " She yelled as she began to help him towards the door. His weight was becoming dead and heavy and it was getting harder for her to pull him. "Baby stay with me, come on. The kids are waiting on you. Don't let them down, come on Billie Joe."

He collapsed on the floor, his eyes closed and his breathing ragged. His head was on her knees and she held his face and gently tapped it to try to wake him up. "Baby wake up." Adrienne averted her eyes to see the livid face of Danny Summers, the man she dated and almost married so many years ago, a maniacal grin smeared across his face, his firing arm free.

Billie Joe stirred slightly. "I love you Adie."

Another shot was fired.